1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a data transmission method, and more particularly to a method of this kind which is suitable for transmitting blocks of data, each of which comprises a predetermined quantity of data, to a transmission path, for example, on a disc-shaped recording medium such as a magneto-optical disc, in the form of a track which is divided into a plurality of sectors into which the blocks of data are respectively written or recorded.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known to add an error correcting code and an error detecting code to data to be transmitted so as to detect and correct errors occurring in the data while the data is transmitted through a transmission path (or a recording medium). In this technique, the error correcting code (ECC), e.g., a b-adjacent code, for correcting errors occurring in a predetermined quantity of data to be transmitted is first produced and then added to the predetermined quantity of data. Next, the error detecting code (EDC) is produced on the basis of the error correcting code and the predetermined quantity of data to be transmitted. Then, the data with the error correcting code and the error detecting code is transmitted to the transmission path (or the recording medium). The data with the error correcting code and the error detecting code received through the transmission path is processed to correct a possible error thereof which may occur in the transmitted data. To be specific, by the use of the error detecting code, it is first detected whether or not a possible error exists in the received data and the error correcting code is added thereto. If it is detected that any error exists in the above data, the error in the transmitted data is corrected by the use of the error correcting code. That is, the error detecting code of the data is used to check the error before the error correcting process of the received data. Further, there is a product code which is also used to correct a possible error in data. This product code is to produce an error correcting code for each row and column of data of a rectangular array comprising a predetermined quantity of data. A known code, e.g., Reed-Solomon code, is employed as the error correcting code thus produced. These data and error correcting codes are successively transmitted in a predetermined order to the transmission path. The predetermined quanity of data with the error correcting code received through the transmission path is again arranged into a rectangular array. Then, the possible errors in the data are corrected by the use of the error correcting codes generated for each of the data in the row and column directions.
However, according to the prior art, the above-mentioned rectangular array of product code is constructed for only one kind of a recording medium. Therefore, if the data is to be recorded on a plurality of different types of recording media, each of which has a different data capacity, the data processing procedure cannot be commonly utilized for different kinds of recording media which constitutes a great inconvenience in the data processing.